Months after they promised to do so, Facebook is now finally (and slowly) rolling out a feature that users have been asking for: the ability to unsend messages you’ve either accidentally or mistakenly or regretfully sent over Messenger. However, you will only have 10 minutes to decide whether or not to do so. Facebook is also working on safeguards to make sure this feature will not be used to bully or harass other users and then delete the “incriminating evidence”.
When the social media giant secretly retracted CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s messages a few months ago, the company calmed down those that criticized them by announcing that they were working on a feature that everyone could use eventually. It took them seven months to do so because of complicated server issues, but now, the feature called “Remove for Everyone” is finally rolling out to several countries initially and eventually for everyone.
How it works is that after you’ve sent a message, whether it’s text or photos or videos, you can delete the messages both on your side and for everyone. But you will have 10 minutes to do so. Just long press on the message you sent and then tap on the Remove button. You have the option to “Remove for you” or “Remove for everyone”. A tombstone will appear to indicate that you removed something from the conversation.
If you initially receive a message that is considered abusive or harassment and then the sender deletes it, tap the person’s name and then tap on Something’s Wrong and choose the proper category to report the message. The deleted message will still be in their server for a short period of time. This is their workaround for the expected abuse of the feature from trolls and generally nefarious individuals.
The feature has started rolling out in Poland, Bolivia, Colombia, and Lithuania and soon, other countries will follow. They are also working on other unsend features which may include and expiration date for messages or even entire threads.
VIA: Tech Crunch
